Welfare schemes high on BBMP agenda

Welfare schemes high on BBMP agenda
DH News Service, Bangalore:
The budget with an outlay of Rs 4,238.41 crore was aimed at the "overall development" of Bangalore, as Palike Commissioner S Subramanya put it...

Better roads and cleaner lakes, more bridges and flyovers, skywalks and underpasses, separate cycle lanes and an ambitious “Green Bangalore Initiative”. The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget presented on Wednesday was definitely not low on vision.

The budget with an outlay of Rs 4,238.41 crore was aimed at the “overall development” of Bangalore, as Palike Commissioner S Subramanya put it.

With road development getting a big share in the budget, the focus was on 12 important corridors identified by the Agenda for the Development of Bangalore to be made signal-free.

The budget anticipated total receipts of around Rs 3,959 crore, the gap between the outlay and the receipts being around Rs 287.05 crore. The income was to come from tax revenue of Rs 1,113.5 crore; Rs 602.78 crore from non tax revenue; Rs 548.5 crore from the State government grants; Rs 269.58 crore from JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) grants; Rs 782.08 crore from loans and Rs 642.85 crore as other receipts including cess and statutory deductions.

This financial year’s principal focus is on capital works which amount to 51 per cent of the total expenditure in the next financial year. Thus BBMP intends to spend Rs 2,177.9 crore. Around Rs 320 crore of the total capital work expenditure will be through JNNURM grants.The BBMP this year plans to spend Rs 1,525 crore for the development of road-related infrastructure.

The Palike intends to spend Rs 6 crore on every ward for which it has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 882 crore. Welfare schemes being high on the BBMP agenda, the Palike intends to spend Rs 533 crore on this sector. This would amount to 14 per cent of the total expenditure next year.